Googling myself

I'm a member of two Ning social networks: A rather sober group that examines innovation in business and is mainly populated by besuited entrepreneurs, and an improv group that organises flashmobs and operates under the title 'Urban Prankster'. 

Guess which one crops up when you google my name?

Stupid internet

Gaargg! I don't think anything drives me more insane than random wi-fi connections that cut out suddenly just as I'm about to post a rather lengthy blog post. 

It's another half-hour of my life down the tubes and it makes me bloody mad! This, slow-walking people, and chickenshit bureaucracy will send me to an early grave.

(Apologies if you were expecting a sunnier post about play or something like that; this technological equivalent of dropping my toast onto the doormat has miffed me more than I expected - I'll get back to the good stuff soon).

Nietzsche quote

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music." - Nietzsche

(nabbed from @creativedc on Twitter)

Michelle Obama in SF

After another day scouring the internet for jobs and coming up with freelance pitches, I was ready to head back to my uncle's place in SF for an evening restorative and maybe a gentle stroll round Noe Valley.

But on crossing Market St, I was held up while a cavalcade of police cars and motorbikes whizzed past, including one car featuring the smiling an waving First Lady. Yep, Michelle Obama was in town, and I'd inadvertently wandered into her armoured procession.

Apparently she was opening a play centre in the city and speaking at a San Francisco school about the importance of volunteering and community leaders.

According to the Associated Press article:

Obama talked about the importance of children getting exercise, adding that at the White House they've instituted "Camp Obama," which means the TV and computers are off until after dinner and right before bedtime — "Bedtime is early."

She also said the Obama girls play on a swing set that has been installed.

"They don't even know that they're getting exercise," Obama said. "That's the value of play and that's what we need to get our kids to do in this community — but we have to provide them with resources to make that happen."

So Michelle Obama in town to celebrate the very thing that's been scurrying around my mind for the last few months: the value of play, and how we can incorporate it into our daily routine. 

I'm glad that this is being taken seriously; encouraging children to play and getting members of the community involved can make a difference. It's a positive message to be sending out in an otherwise bleak era.

Improv Everywhere

One of the final things we did for last quarter's improv class was an 'improv everywhere' exercise, in which we wandered round campus improvising slightly surreal situations. I loved it for a number of reasons, but mainly because it was subversive but positive. Anyone who saw it was pretty taken aback, and some were keen to get involved. Whatever their reaction, though, it was clear that they'd just experienced something a bit out of the ordinary, which broke up the routine of their day. I definitely want to do similar things when I'm back in London. I'm certain this sort of spontaneity is fantastic for society as a whole.

Cassetteboy v The Bloody Apprentice

You've probably seen this already; it still makes me laugh:

The Great Outdoors

One of the best things about being based in California is being surrounded by some of the most spectacular scenery on the planet. I've managed to get out to loads of good places this year (Redwoods, Henry Coe, Desolation Wilderness, Tahoe), and tomorrow I'm heading down to Camp Nelson, just south of Sequoia National Park. The plan is just to hole ourselves up in a cabin with no phone or internet, and just chill in rustic splendour. 

It should be fantastic, and I'm really looking forward to doing a bit of hiking and manly outdoorsmanship. But because I'm a plonker, I'm actually a bit concerned about not being plugged into the net. I'm sure once I'm up there I'll be so happy that it won't even cross my mind, but at the moment I have visions of potential employers all frantically trying to contact me, while I blithely let all these golden opportunities go unanswered. Bloody stupid, of course; far better just to celebrate being off-radar for a while, and that's exactly what I intend to do.

Here are some pictures of Camp Nelson I found on Flickr (llllll1's photostream). It looks absolutely stunning.

If anyone's got some good suggestions for things to do and make while we're up there, drop me a quick comment. I'm thinking of building a wigwam.

Caution

With thanks to Sween (http://atsween.tumblr.com/)

End of days

A glorious day out here in Stanford. Unfortunately I spent most of it indoors, tinkering away on job applications, but I managed to get out for a stroll round the Dish with a coursemate, so not a complete washout. 

It's now got to the point that pretty much everything I do here will be the last time I do it, so I feel I should try to fit in plenty of outdoors time, getting the most of Stanford's greenery and the California sun. But I've got a world of crap to get sorted before being booted out, so it's more likely that I'll getting the applications in or shoveling stuff into boxes before turning in my keys. Not ideal, but there you go.

There is some good stuff happening though: a friend of mine's mum treated us to a rather spiffy Greek meal at Evvia, so I'm getting to drink from the graduation cup, even though my folks are back in the UK. And I think there'll be a few more parties over the next couple of days to celebrate getting through the year.

All in all, though, it's been a bit of an anticlimax. Unlike finals in the UK, where you work up to a crescendo and then flee the university with streamers hanging from your hair, the last year has been a sustained and intense block of graft. And now we emerge into an unsure market, with unemployment on the rise, and a selection of debts hanging round our necks. Plus we're being booted out of our flats basically the moment graduation is over, so there's not even time to enjoy campus. It just seems to have come and gone.

So tomorrow I'll don the gown I found outside the campus bookstore and head over to the ceremonies for the final push. There's the main effort in the stadium, which sounds like it'll last forever (it's the one where they read out thousands of names), and then the Comm department graduation later on. I might not go to the first one, if it really is as interminable as feared. But the second one should be interesting, and I'll actually get to pick up my diploma. So this time tomorrow I'll be Dan Walker Smith, MA (Stanford).

(The place to get the gowns was shut, by the way, but someone had balled up a faculty gown and left it in a magazine rack, so I left my contact details and nabbed it - I now think I'll be graduating in a faculty gown from the business department, which is a bit random, but might be better for getting a job).

Brainstorming rules

I'm in the d.school again - Stanford's design centre. It's my favourite place on campus - absolutely brimming with ideas and creativity. The whole place is structured to encourage 'design thinking' and the creative process -  they really understand how play can be used to stoke innovation.

I thought I'd jot down the 'brainstorming rules' that are set out in one of the shared spaces, before I forget. Definitely good things to keep in mind.

• Defer judgement

• Go for quantity

• Encourage wild ideas

• Build on the ideas of others

• One conversation at a time

• Stay focused on the topic

• Be visual

Here are some pics of brainstorming, as well, taken from the Hasso-Plattner School of Design Thinking in Germany. Great to see the creative process in action

Close to the Edge

Wow, that was quick. So we're nearly at the end - thesis done, bills paid, just graduation to go, and then I'm outta here. 

Seems odd now. A whole year here at Stanford. I'm still unsure how I feel about the place - lots of good and interesting stuff, but all of it diluted by busy work or bureaucracy. I feel like Stanford is so close to being awesome, but just needs a quick tweak here and there. 

That's part of the reason I'm sorry to go: I reckon if I were here for a couple more years, not only would I crack it, but I'd actually be able to instill a bit more fun for other people. 

KZSU, for example, is just crying out for someone to rejig it. The potential's there; we just need to turn it up a bit.

And the Comm department - what I could do if I had a couple of terms to tinker with that. In fact, I spent most of a run yesterday coming up with ideas to booster the thing. I'd tell the department about them as well, if I didn't think they'd just fall on deaf ears (or ears unwilling to pay, at least).

Maybe all this is a mixture of looking back on the last year and thinking how I could've made it even better. But I suspect what I'm really after is a project. I'm not sure it even matters what that project is - I just need something sustained to build from start to finish and make it fantastic.

Academic journalism is fine, but it's a bit piecemeal. Possibly the time's come to create something new that I can really get my teeth into.